Early in the campaign
New organizers and volunteers are excited to contribute to the campaign – but do they know how? Do they have the right training to make an impact, and measure their impact as well? Let’s set your campaign up for success from day 1.
Design your grassroots campaign
Ken has designed and run 11 grassroots campaigns. He can work with you to decide when to start, how to recruit, motivate and train organizers and volunteers. He will help you choose which voters to reach out to and how best to reach them.
Use census data to guide your grassroots operation
The census bureau provides a wealth of information that can be useful to a campaign. In combination with the voter file, it can establish what percent of those eligible to register are indeed registered. It can also help you refine your canvassing priorities to maximize the effectiveness of your canvass.
Mentor New Organizers
The first two weeks of an organizers time on your campaign are key to their success. Ken will work side-by-side with them for up to two weeks to ensure that their first canvass is a success, setting the tone for the rest of the campaign.
Mid-campaign
You’re in the middle of the campaign, but your organizers and volunteers are losing focus, they aren’t hitting their goals, and exhaustion is setting in.
You have seen first-hand how burnout can affect morale. Now is the time to train or re-train your team to be the most effective, motivated team of volunteers.
Train experienced organizers to lead more effective canvasses
You know that your organizers should have canvassers role play before their first canvass (and indeed before every canvass) but few organizers are able to convince canvassers to engage in a role play. Volunteers can improve every time that they canvass. Some organizers understand that but don’t know to make that happen. Other organizers still see canvassing as nothing more than door knocking.
Wherever your organizers are on this spectrum, Dr. Stanley can help your organizers learn how to make their volunteers more effective every time they canvass.
Anytime During the Campaign
All volunteers benefit from training early & often. Give them the right tools to be the most effective canvassers out in the field.
Let Ken canvass with your best canvasser
Ken loves to canvass with the best. Your best canvasser is likely aware that canvassing is a learnable, teachable skill. That is how she became your best canvasser. Making your best canvasser even better will motivate all canvassers and give them additional techniques that they can pass along to other canvassers. And Ken learns from the best as well.
Train canvassers
Every canvass starts with discussion (“What has worked for you?” and “Would you like some ideas on how to be more effective today?”) and ends with reflection (“What worked for you today?”) Neither should take more than five minutes but they help canvassers motivate more voters to make a commitment to vote and helps canvassers take pride in what they are doing.
It is never too early and never too late to train canvassers.
Ken Stanley 